Collision
by Emmeebee
Summary: In the wake of the Battle of Sokovia, the wizarding world is forced to contend with the fact that they may not be able to stay hidden for much longer. By the time Thanos arrives on Earth four years later, they are ready to act. (6 chapters; rated for violence.)
1. Making History

**May 2015**

The headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards was magnificent. Set into the side of a mountain in the Swiss Alps, it offered awe-inspiring views of snow-covered slopes and clear blue skies. Virtually unreachable except by magic, its defences consisted of the best security measures that its member nations had to offer.

For the most part, Ike Kowalski had grown accustomed to it over the year he had worked there as one of the American delegates. Today, however, it was as intimidating as the first day he set foot there, newly sworn into his role and eager to effect lasting change. He had been preparing for this summit for months, trying to make sure his case was as ironclad as possible, but that was hardly reassuring. He knew that most of the representatives there would want to discredit his efforts on principle alone.

He checked his watch, and his heart seemed to skip a beat when he realised that there were only a few minutes left. He must have lost track of time while going over his notes for the meeting.

Gathering together his things, he hurried into the council chambers. By the time he arrived, most of the other representatives had already found their seats around the large oval table that took up most of the space in the room.

As Ike took his own place, Olivia Santorelli, the other American delegate, reached over and clasped his shoulder reassuringly. "You have more support than you realise," she whispered so that no one else could hear.

"I hope so," he replied. "If not, this is going to go down like a lead balloon."

She blinked at him. "A lead balloon?"

Ike didn't have time to explain the No-Maj idiom; before he could reply, the Supreme Mugwump, Babajide Akingbade, rose to his feet at the head of the table. All chatter ceased at the motion, the gathering falling quiet as a sign of respect.

"As you are all aware," Babajide said, "this emergency summit was called at the request of Mr Kowalski. Mr Kowalski wishes to" — his voice faltered for a moment; Ike knew he always sought to remain impartial, so this slip was particularly out of character for him — "amend the International Statute of Secrecy and establish a special task force to prepare for our possible reintegration into the Muggle world."

The announcement shouldn't have come as a surprise to anybody. It was the only item on the day's agenda, which contained a summary of both Ike's proposal and his reasons for it for their convenience. Nevertheless, the room erupted into a cacophony of noise and protests at Babajide's words.

Ike sighed and glanced over at Olivia. Meeting her eyes, he raised an eyebrow pointedly.

So much for more support than he realised. If he got more than twenty votes in his favour, it'd be a miracle.

"Silence," Babajide demanded, and the ICW members obligingly fell quiet. "Mr Kowalski has gone through the proper channels and has been shown to have enough of a case to justify presenting his proposal here today. You _will_ show him the respect that his station commands. Mr Kowalski, you have the floor."

The weight of their stares was overwhelming as he rose to his feet, but he tried not to let it show. They were like wolves; if he showed any sign of weakness, let them smell even a whiff of blood, they'd tear him to pieces. He had seen it happen countless times in the past.

Steadying his shaking hands, he took a deep breath and began to speak. "You are all aware, I am sure, that the No-Maj world has been subjected to a series of potentially cataclysmic threats over the last several years, and that a number of so-called 'superheroes' have arisen to overcome these threats."

He opened his binder — a holdover from being raised in a half-blood household — before using his wand to enlarge a collage he had assembled in preparation for this moment. It was comprised of photographs and news headlines detailing the actions of these superheroes. They had been carefully curated to include the most severe threats and the most complimentary media responses.

Levitating it so that everyone could see it, he paused to let a ripple of surprise run through the room. Just as he'd thought; they'd all heard about the events, but for the most part, they'd written them off as petty No-Maj concerns for the No-Majs to deal with. They hadn't realised their true extent.

"This one," he said, pointing to the first photograph, "is the devastation that was wreaked upon New York three years ago when a man from another planet attempted to invade Earth. Prior to that point, he'd had no dealings with anyone from Earth before — we were just as much his target as the No-Majs were. We left the No-Majs to deal with him on their own. Our sources on the inside say that if these superheroes had failed to defeat him, the government planned to sacrifice the city and everybody in it to contain the threat. Two wizards died that day due to our negligence; that number would have been significantly higher had the No-Majs had gone through with their plan of destroying the city."

As he spoke, he surveyed the room. His colleagues' expressions ranged from fear to horror as the information sunk in. Pausing only to take a breath, he pressed on, not wanting to lose his momentum. "And _this one_ was taken only a few days ago in Novi Grad, the capital of Sokovia. Our Muggle liaisons are still trying to gather information on this event, but early reports indicate that, knowing that greater threats were yet to come, a group of superheroes created a robot — an animated statue, if you will — to help them defend the planet. It turned against them. A dozen of our people died trying to protect themselves and their neighbours, and in this case, the city _was_ destroyed. If we were involved, the group may not have seen the need to create this robot, and the battle may never have happened."

Ike's speech was emotive, rhetorical, manipulative — all the things that his studies had taught him to avoid. But in this case, facing people who were masters of making up reasons to rationalise their own interests, it was his best option. His eyes met Olivia's, and she gave him an almost imperceptible nod of encouragement. "As you can see, there are many more examples that I could go through, but I believe I have made my point."

He enlarged and levitated another sheet of parchment from his binder so that it was visible as well. This one displayed a timeline of all of the major threats the No-Maj community had encountered in the last fifty years. The dots were sparse at first before clustering around the last few years. "And the incident rate isn't slowing. If anything, it's getting worse over time. Two dead three years ago, and twelve last week. What happens next time? The longer we leave this, the more its impacts will seep into our little corner of the world as well — for let us not forget that, as much as we speak about the wizarding world and the No-Maj world, we occupy the same countries, the same cities, the same streets. When aliens from another planet launch an attack at them, they are attacking us, too. How many people do we have to lose before we decide to get involved?

"Imagine how different the results of the Battle of New York, or of the Battle of Sokovia, would have been had our people been allowed to get involved. Instead, they were stuck in their homes, knowing that they could defend themselves if they were attacked directly but were not allowed to wilfully enter situations where they had reason to believe that they might be seen. One survivor from New York spoke of how he watched the alien invaders kill a girl on the street outside his home. If he had been out there with her, he would have been allowed to defend her. But because there were people nearby, and because he was inside at the time of the attack, leaving his house to protect somebody would have nullified any self-defence argument he tried to put forward."

To drive home the point, he gestured to a picture of a seven-year-old girl.

Quiet murmurs ran through the gathering. He wasn't surprised; unlike some of the other photographs, which were at least marginally self-explanatory, they would have had no idea why this one was included. "Her name was Rosa Ingles. And before you ask, yes, she was a witch. It happened too quickly for her accidental magic to protect her."

This time, Ike _did_ hesitate. He didn't have much time to make his initial case, but it felt wrong not to observe a moment of silence. After a few seconds, he continued: "But these aren't the only changes that No-Maj culture has been undergoing. I have collected a number of key headlines from No-Maj newspapers and magazines from around the world. 'Iron Man Saves the Day!' 'All You Need to Know: Suits, Super Serums, and Gamma Radiation.' 'What Makes a Hero?' And my brother's personal favourite: 'How to Get a Body Like Thor'. There was a time when it would have been folly to reveal ourselves to the non-magical community. But now, they are increasingly open to people who are different than them, especially when said people are fighting for their freedom. People who once would have been outcasts are now being lauded as heroes. It is time for us to stop this fragmentation and return to being one people, one species determined to fight together against mutual enemies.

"The law is supposed to protect us. What happens when all it does is endanger not only our people, but the very world we live in?"

Ike hesitated. The other delegates seemed to have been receptive so far — surprisingly so — but that was the easy part. It was one thing to inform; it was another to convince. "When the International Statute of Secrecy was introduced, it was as a last resort. Now, it is nothing but a holdover from days long gone. Nevertheless, I am not asking for it to be overturned; there is still value in it for as long as it is sustainable. I am merely asking that we accept that there will come a time in the very near future where we no longer have the luxury of keeping ourselves separate and begin to prepare accordingly.

"As such, I propose that we make a series of amendments. First, that we assign our most experienced public relations officers and No-Maj liaisons to developing a strategy for reintegration, should we need it. Second, that we agree that the next time such an attack occurs, any and all witches and wizards present are given permission to defend themselves and their fellow people — magical and non-magical alike — in any way that a reasonable person would deem appropriate. Third, that we prepare to deploy a force of Aurors should a threat occur that poses a significant enough threat to our planet to warrant our involvement."

-x-

As the members of the International Confederation of Wizards tapped their wands to their agendas to cast their votes, a grim silence settled over the room. The debate had raged on for days, drifting from calm discussions to outright arguments and back again multiple times. Friendships and alliances had been tested and strained as individuals put forward answers to questions with the potential of upending everything they held dear.

Now, all that was left was the moment of truth — the moment when each and every one of them had to make a decision about whether the safest course of action was to hold onto the security measures of the past or throw off old traditions and ally themselves with the Muggles.

The book laying open in front of Supreme Mugwump Babajide Akingbade warmed as the votes were counted. To ensure that the results could not be tampered with, they were entered directly into the official record of the order of proceedings without human involvement. When the pages cooled once more, he peered down at it, watching as two numbers slowly appeared in elegant calligraphy.

Even as prepared as he was, seeing the final numbers laid out so bluntly came as a shock.

Rising to his feet, Babajide paused for a moment, struck by just how momentous this meeting was. It would go down in the history books; the only question was whether it would be as the best decision the wizarding world had ever made or the worst.

Beyond the doors of the conference chamber, reporters stood at the ready. Their stories were sure to already be drafted; all they were waiting for was confirmation of which version to run and what to fill the blanks with.

But for now, the full weight of Babajide's attention rested on the tense gathering before him. Taking a deep breath, he began to speak, his low and gravelly voice echoing through the silent chamber. In that moment, a dragon could have swooped in, and he doubted anybody would move a muscle.

"A decision has been reached," he said. "With a count of seventy-three votes to forty-eight, the motion to amend the International Statute of Secrecy… is sustained."

A clamour broke out at the announcement. Babajide wasn't surprised. There were enough votes in support of the motion to carry it through, but only barely. Still, in practical terms, whether it was a close decision or a unanimous one made no difference. It was binding either way.

Three hundred and twenty-six years, numerous Muggle _and_ wizarding wars, and at least two incidents of schoolchildren commandeering a flying car, and the International Statute of Secrecy had stood strong. There had been slip-ups, resulting in more Memory Charms than any nation could be bothered to count, but nothing permanent.

Until now.

"If you have anyone you would like to nominate for the special task force assigned to preparing a reintegration strategy, get their names to me by the end of the week. Apart from that… tell your respective governments of this outcome. Meeting adjourned."

Babajide could only hope they hadn't doomed them all.

* * *

A/N: Re-uploaded on 3 April. Thank you so much to Alphinss for betaing!


	2. Deployment

**May 2018**

Padma sighed as she reviewed her notes on her most recent case. There had been a robbery at a local art gallery, and while there was no doubt in her mind that she'd found the thief, there simply wasn't enough evidence to prosecute him. In all likelihood, her best bet would be to wait until he tried to sell the paintings and nab him then, but she had no idea how long that would take.

When she'd left the Department of Mysteries in favour of the Auror Department, she'd hoped that the more active role would have helped cure her discontent. She'd loved her job and how it stimulated her intellectually, but the hours had been so consistently long that she hadn't had any time for anything else. And it was difficult to maintain relationships when so much of her life had to be kept secret. Family, friends, and fitness — all things that meant the world to her — had fallen by the wayside.

Knowing that that would never change within the context of that job, she'd applied for a transfer. Parvati had jokingly said she was going through a midlife crisis, but she hadn't cared.

But while the hours were better, being an Auror posed its own problems. Namely, it wasn't as interesting. There were fascinating parts of her job, to be sure; she could see why her coworkers loved it. But after working in the Department of Mysteries, researching existential questions about the nature of magic itself, her heart just wasn't in it. She'd known that it would be different, of course, but she'd assumed it would be worth it.

She honestly wasn't sure whether it was.

It didn't help that, despite the many changes they'd made since the war, the administrative branch of the Ministry was still very much mired in the past. Sometimes, it felt like they were actively trying to get in the way of the Aurors doing their jobs. Apprehending criminals was easy, but when she knew that some of them would be released on the basis of who they knew and how many bribes they could afford, it all started to feel a little pointless. It had happened in the Department of Mysteries, too, of course, but it hadn't had much of an effect on her particular area of study.

At her last performance review, she'd raised her issues with Harry. A lesser manager might have fired her because of it, but he'd simply said that she was quickly becoming one of his best Aurors and offered to give her as much variety of work as possible.

That wasn't saying much, and there was still a lot of drudgery in the form of endless piles of paperwork to pore over or fill out. Still, it was a gesture of good faith, and it meant a lot to her. It was something she could hold onto while she worked out what she wanted to do going forward.

Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her mind. It was a habit she'd developed during her time as a researcher. Sometimes, resetting her vision helped her reset her approach as well.

But when she opened her eyes, she was as stumped as ever.

The sound of hurried footsteps and heavy breathing tore her attention from the frustrating case. The senior undersecretary to the Minister for Magic ran into the room, looking panicked and out of breath. He didn't spare a look at any of the Aurors as he sprinted for Harry's office, skidding to a stop at the threshold.

Ever a curious bunch, the Aurors fell quiet, all watching for signs of why the under-secretary was there. Padma leant forward in her chair, straining to overhear the conversation.

She only caught snippets of it, but what she did hear terrified her. "The ICW." "Code Basilisk." "Going to die."

Code Basilisk? That wasn't one of the department's usual codes —

The galleon hanging around her neck warmed, and she heard noises of surprise from the other Aurors as well. The pieces fell into place. Harry had distributed them after the ICW had amended the Statute of Secrecy four years prior so that when the time came to strike, he could inform everybody at a moment's notice.

All thoughts of infuriating cases and career dissatisfaction fled from her mind. For the past four years, the Aurors had all been familiarising themselves with Muggle warfare so that they knew what they were up against, so they could distinguish between a knife, a gun, and a missile. Now, it seemed, that knowledge was about to be tested.

For the first time in decades, the wizarding world was going to war.

-x-

Padma knew she should be anxious, but she felt oddly calm. All around her, Aurors from across the globe filled the field, wearing uniforms of all different colours. For the most part, they were grouped together by country, with the rationale that they were already familiar with one another's strengths and weaknesses and knew how to adjust for them. But they were all united by the magnitude of what they were about to do: go to war in the Muggle world against a bloody _alien_.

It was further complicated by the fact that they hadn't revealed themselves to the Muggles yet. The ICW had been working with world leaders to develop reintegration strategies, but nothing had been actioned yet. In the chaos of an actual battle, it wasn't going to do them much good. But as long as there was the possibility that they wouldn't be needed, the ICW wanted them to hold back. They were only to intervene if the Supreme Mugwump deemed it absolutely necessary.

If there were any chance at all of preserving the International Statute of Secrecy, they were expected to take it.

Padma didn't think there was much likelihood of that. While she didn't know much about this threat, it was clear that it never would have come this far if it weren't serious. The outcome seemed inevitable.

The Supreme Mugwump stepped onto a small stage he'd conjured in the middle of a field, giving him enough height that even people on the outskirts should be able to see him. Amplifying his voice, he cleared his throat. "Thank you all for gathering here so quickly. I know that some of you were woken in the middle of the night for this.

"Unfortunately, there was an incident in New York several hours ago. Some kind of alien transportation arrived, prompting a skirmish between a handful of Muggle superheroes and two unknown alien invaders. Shortly afterwards, a similar fight broke out in Edinburgh. As yet, we do not know what these aliens are here for; nor do we know what their goals are. However, the king of Wakanda has informed us that the main battle will take place in his country, and he has sectioned off an area for us to Portkey to. When the enemy threat arrives, he will send us confirmation, and we will begin our journey there.

"He has informed his allies that backup may arrive, but as per our agreement, he is unable to tell them of the nature of our abilities. As such, we all need to be prepared to be met with suspicion and distrust when we arrive.

"But remember: I do not care what you may think of Muggles. For this fight, you will treat them as if they are your closest friends and fiercest allies. Anyone who defies this command will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"If there is anything you need to do before we go — anyone you need to send messages to — I would advise you to do it now."

With that, he undid the charm and stepped down off the stage.

Padma hesitated. When she first transferred to the Auror Department, she had written letters to her family so that they had something to remember her by if she died. They were currently being held in stasis by her magic; if anything happened to her, the charm would fall, and the letters would be delivered.

Still, that had been a good two years ago now. It might be worth sending them a warning, at least.

-x-

When the notification finally came through, a murmur of unease ran through the gathering.

In that moment, the full weight of what they were about to do finally hit her. All at once, it felt like she was seventeen years old again, preparing to face Voldemort for what they could only hope would be the last time. Things had worked out back then, but they had lost so many. As much as she hoped that things were different this time, she knew that was an unrealistic wish.

"Ready, Harry?" Padma asked, walking over to where he was talking to a group of their coworkers. She pulled a band from the bun in her hair, letting it tumble down in a messy heap, before tying it up again. It was one of her tells; when she was nervous, doing things with her hands helped to distract her.

"I don't know," he replied. "Won't until we get there, I suppose."

A few of the other Aurors rumbled in disapproval, but she appreciated his honesty. He had always prided himself on being as transparent as his role allowed; that way, people knew that they could trust him when he said things were alright. It was nice to know that, even now, he refused to go back on that.

"Isn't that always the way?" she asked knowingly.

"Any regrets?" Lisa, a Welsh witch who had recently finished the training program, asked as she made her way over to Padma.

In life in general? Many. In relation to this? "None. You?"

"Yeah."

"Five minutes!" the Supreme Mugwump called from the other side of the field, his voice booming across the open space. "Get in position!"

They gathered around the tablecloth that was serving as their Portkey. As their unit converged, they all picked up bits of the fabric until it was suspended taut above the ground between them.

"Time to kill some aliens," Seamus said as he created a space for himself next to Padma. "Didn't think we'd end up in a war again, did we?"

When Padma met Seamus' gaze, it was clear that there was fear behind his veneer of brassy bravado. Her former yearmate might like to pretend that nothing affected him, but the Battle of Hogwarts had hit him as hard as anyone. Nobody could have lived through that and retained the view that a battlefield was a place for adventure and glory. Least of all Seamus. Padma knew he still saw a Muggle therapist about his trauma.

But, sometimes, the only way to be brave was to make the decision to be bold and to commit to it wholeheartedly. Padma nodded in recognition, and Seamus let out a breath of air.

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly from Padma's other side. "As you all know, I'm not one for speeches."

They all shared a quiet laugh over that understatement. Harry had a knack for giving inspirational speeches on the fly, but it was clear that he was still averse to them. "But I figure that if there's ever been a time for one, this is it. Battles are never pretty. They're never simple and they're never neat. If any of you are having second thoughts, I don't blame you; you're not alone.

"But, sometimes, as horrible as they are, battles are _right_. We have that on our side. They're fighting to conquer; we're fighting to protect our home, our families, our very planet. I won't say that will mean we'll win; frankly, our best advantage is the element of surprise. But when it's hard, when you want to give up, when you feel like it's hopeless… remember. Remember what, and who, you're fighting for. Let that pull you through."

With that, Padma felt the familiar feeling of something tugging at her navel. Then, the Portkey pulled them all through the ether in a swirl of vivid light.

* * *

A/N: Re-uploaded on 3 April. Thank you so much to Alphinss for betaing!


	3. Battle of Wakanda

Walking in the Hulkbuster suit was an odd experience. For the most part, humans didn't need to think when they walked. The process involved a complicated series of interactions between neurons and muscles, but it felt so natural, so instinctive, that it felt as if it just happened. But while this suit was top-of-the-line technology, compared to human — or even Hulk — legs, it felt clunky and uncoordinated.

Besides that, the irony of wearing a suit that was designed to restrain the other guy was not lost on Bruce. If Tony found out, he would never hear the end of it.

Nevertheless, it was a relief to be able to be in control mentally, even if it meant he wasn't as indestructible as he was as the Hulk.

For now, the battle was going well. Most of the enemies were stuck behind the barrier, and the occasional few that broke through were being easily shot down.

Clearly, however, this wasn't going to last. The other army was starting to think smarter, apparently deciding that if they couldn't push through the barrier, they'd have to find another way to get in. The aliens were starting to go around; if they reached an unprotected area, they'd have a clear, uninterrupted path to Vision and Shuri.

Bruce passed the message on to Steve, and T'Challa requested that their section of the barrier be lowered. Then, with a cry from the Wakandan king, the gathered forces charged across the grassy field, Steve and T'Challa taking the lead.

The moment Bruce hit the enemy forces, everything was chaos. He had always been a thinker, preferring to approach situations logically. But in a moment like this, there was no time for that. There was always another foe coming; stopping to think might well mean stopping to die. All he could do was rely on his instincts and hope that that was enough.

Swinging his arm, he knocked one of the aliens to the ground. Another leapt onto his back, but he barely felt it, the suit absorbing most of the shock.

It slid off the smooth metal.

Bruce turned, lifted it off the ground, and threw it across the field. It crashed into the first alien, taking it down with a crunch.

Powering up one of his blasters, Bruce shot at the pair. He waited for a moment, and when neither of them moved, he surveyed the battlefield around him. His immediate vicinity was clear, so he surged forward to find another alien to fight.

But before he could get far, hundreds of people started falling from the sky.

His steps faltered. One moment, the sky had been clear; the next, it was full of falling bodies. He doubted the weatherman had predicted that; rainy with a side of people.

How…?

"It's raining men," Sam muttered from nearby. Then, flaring their wings, he and Rhodey flew up, trying to save as many as they could.

Bruce tried to position himself under one of others, but his gut was sinking. There was little any of them would be able to do. How many of them could they save? Twenty? Thirty? That would barely make a dent.

Sam and Rhodey grabbed two people each, lowering them to the ground before flying up to collect more.

When they reached jumping distance, Bruce propelled himself up into the air and caught as many of the people as he could hold.

"What are you doing?" one of the women demanded.

Landing on the ground with a thud, he set them all down. "...Saving you?"

"Ah, that's nice and all, but we don't need saving."

"What do you mean? Of course you — "

The woman pointed up at the sky, and Bruce was surprised to realise that the newcomers all seemed rather cavalier about their plight. In fact, as he watched, their descent slowed. By the time they reached the ground, they were moving at a perfectly safe speed. Most of them landed safely on their feet, the others hitting the ground but appearing largely unharmed.

Inhumanely so.

"Oh." Turning to face T'Challa, who was fighting nearby, Bruce called out, "I hope this is the backup you were talking about. If not, we're even more screwed than we were before."

"Don't attack!" a man with messy dark hair and vivid green eyes shouted, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. His accent was English, and he was holding a thin stick in one hand. He looked to be in his late thirties. "My name's Harry. We're on your side."

"You are the w — the people sent by the ICW?" T'Challa asked.

"The wizards, yes."

Bruce looked between them incredulously. _"Wizards?"_

But it was difficult to doubt them when he had seen them survive such a large fall and when even now, he could see others pulling out their own sticks and sending bursts of light in every colour of the rainbow straight at the enemy.

Perhaps it wasn't really magic. Perhaps, like with the sceptre, it was simply advanced technology. The English could have been hoarding it as a defence in case the United States ever told the Avengers to move against them.

Harry shrugged. "Well, and witches."

"Good." T'Challa gestured to the building where Shuri was working on extracting the Mind Stone from Vision. "We don't have time for explanations, but the simplified version of events is that the object that the enemy is after is in that building over there. We must keep them away from it at all costs. If all six stones are placed into the gauntlet, its master will be able to wipe out half of all living beings in existence."

"Got it." Harry turned to face the others who had arrived with him. "Lisa, Rowan, John, get into that building and provide protection. Seamus, you're in charge here. I'm going to find Babajide. Be careful trying to Apparate in this chaos."

Harry turned in place and disappeared with a loud crack, followed shortly by three of the others.

A man with cropped-short hair stepped forward to take his place. "Let's do this. If we die today, we die like giants."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. Based on what he knew of folklore — which, truthfully, wasn't much — giants were hard to kill because of their tough skin. But if someone was at the moment of death, why would that be relevant? Or was it some glory thing? "Like giants?"

"When giants die, they fall," said the woman who had pointed out that they didn't need saving. "And when they fall, they tend to squish anyone below them — which is where their attackers usually are. The saying means that if you're going to die, take your enemies down with you. I'm Padma, by the way."

"Thanks." That, he could get behind. "I'm Bruce."

-x-

The battle was messy and desperate. The arrival of the so-called witches and wizards had helped to even the odds, but they were still outnumbered. The enemies kept charging mindlessly, and the newcomers seemed to be struggling with the close quarters. From what Bruce could see, they had little in the way of physical defences. They were wearing some kind of leather armour, but the aliens' teeth and claws were able to rip through it like it was nothing. And there were only so many 'spells' they could cast with such limited space to manoeuvre.

"Duck!" Bruce called out as an alien jumped out behind Padma.

She crouched down, and he caught it mid-leap. As she rose to her feet, she sent a burst of red light careening into it, and it fell limp in his hands.

He let it drop to the ground. "Is it dead?"

"Stunned," she replied. "It isn't safe to use Killing Curses in a place like this. You never know when an ally might get in your way."

Overhead, a stray spell caught one of Sam's wings, and he dropped several feet before regaining control. Even as he regained his altitude, he appeared to be struggling.

"Like that," Bruce said grimly, returning to the battle. When this was over, if he survived, he was going to have to get a hold of one of those wands to study.

-x-

The aliens pressed down on Bruce, their weight forcing him to the ground. Flailing, he fell, trying futilely to throw them off. As they crawled over him, scratching and clawing at the suit, he realised that this could well be the place he died.

He'd thought about death a lot over the years, from a variety of viewpoints. He could describe the biology of death in intimate detail; he had pondered the philosophy of why innocent children died while murderers and rapists lived; he had lamented the deaths caused by the Hulk and tried to think of ways around his inability to take his own.

It had been a long time since he'd been in a situation where he was honestly scared for his life. But now, with the Hulk refusing to emerge, he had to wonder whether this was it.

His heart pounded at the thought. How far would the other guy take this? Would he be willing to let them both die?

Once, he would have been relieved, seizing the opportunity while he could. But now… Now, he had things to live for: friends, a purpose, hope.

He twisted, trying to get the leverage to toss his assailants away, but there were too many of them.

How ironic that it was now that he no longer wanted to die that he finally might.

" _Reducto!"_ Padma's voice cried out. _"Reducto!"_ she repeated, over and over again.

First one alien exploded, then another, pieces of flesh and blood flying everywhere. Bruce forced himself to stay still, trusting Padma to pick off his attackers. As hard as it was, he knew that if he moved, he might find himself in the way of one of her spells.

" _Scourgify!_ "

After a moment of silence, he rose to his feet, surprised to find that not only were the aliens gone, but his suit was clean. "Thanks."

"Anytime. I — What is _that_?"

A column of light came down from the sky, then some sort of projectile emerged, bouncing between aliens with bursts of bright blue lightning.

Not just any projectile — a hammer. Suddenly, it flew back to the column of light — and into the hand that was waiting for it.

Bruce grinned. Relief swelled within him like a fire, growing slowly, cautiously, before bursting into life. "That's Thor."

Padma's jaw dropped open. _"The_ Thor? We learned about him at school."

"That's the one."

Finally, the tide had turned in their favour. The defending army surged forward, reinvigorated by the new arrivals. Perhaps they could do this after all. Perhaps —

"SEAMUS!" Padma screamed.

Bruce whipped around to see an alien tackle the man from behind, knocking him to the ground and ripping into him with its teeth. Pointing his jet thrusters at the ground, he turned them on, using their force to propel him through the air. But try as he might, he knew he would never reach him in time.

Red light shot past him, hitting the alien solidly in the side and sending it careening away. Another leaped forward to take its place.

"Don't come any closer," Seamus called out, his voice strained and breathing ragged. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the creature behind him. "If... we die today… we die like giants."

The word he muttered was lost to the sounds of battle, but a yellow light flew up out of his wand, emanating a soft, gentle warmth. In that moment, that light was the most fascinating thing Bruce had ever seen. Nothing in the world was more important than reaching it, investigating it, finding out how it worked.

The shouts and crashes of the battle seemed to fade.

Like a moth to a flame, he stumbled forward, wanting nothing more than to bask in its soothing glow. The suit was growing tighter, his heart rate elevating.

"Don't!" Seamus repeated.

But the light was so…

An alien crashed into Bruce's from behind, and he stumbled forward. In an instant, his mind and ears cleared. Why had the light ever seemed so important? It was fascinating, but no more so than any of the other things the wizards and witches were able to do.

Bruce spun around to grab his attacker, but it was barrelling past him, straight at -

Straight at Seamus. Bruce's steps faltered. All around him, aliens were rushing in the same direction, swarming around Bruce, apparently just as drawn to the spell as Bruce.

It was only when his heart rate fell that he realised just how close the other guy had come to coming out. The spell hadn't lured Bruce Banner — somehow, despite his stubborn refusals, it had lured the _Hulk_.

Bruce started forward again, this time focused on Seamus rather than the light, but before he could get even two steps, the man dug his wand into the ground, and his pained voice shouted a single word: " _Bombarda!"_

An explosion ripped through the area, the ground reverberating with the force of the shock. Bruce covered his face, turning to shield himself from the blow.

Padma skidded to a stop beside Bruce, her dark eyes horrified. "Seamus…"

The battlefield seemed to still. There was no way anything would have survived that blast. Around them, people from both side of the fight paused to check the unexpected noise before continuing with their skirmishes.

"Padma, I… I'm sorry."

He put his hand on her shoulder, moving it slowly to make sure he didn't use too much force.

She turned to him. The corner of her eyes glistened with tears, but as he watched, her expression turned hard and unyielding. "This ends now."

Bruce nodded. "His death won't be in vain."

It wasn't that simple, of course; nothing ever was. Still, they pushed forward, switching from a defensive strategy to a more aggressive one. Seamus' face, pained but resolute, stayed in Bruce's mind. The longer this fight went on, the more people they'd lose. It didn't matter whether they were from his side or hers; old friends, new friends, strangers — every life mattered. Every death was one death too many.

Well, with one noticeable exception.

-x-

Eventually, they cut their way through the enemy forces to reach Thanos, gathering more witches and wizards around them as they went. Cap was brawling with the Mad Titan, clearly struggling to keep up with his superior speed and strength.

At the sight of the five gems on his gauntlet, Bruce's heart sank. Somehow, he'd gotten through Tony and Steven. And now, there was only one gem left for him to collect. Padma was right; win or lose, this was it.

"What are his weaknesses?" Padma muttered under her breath.

Bruce sighed. "I'm not so sure he has any. We may need to overwhelm him with sheer numbers."

"Or slow him down."

"Can you do that?" he asked, hating how vague it sounded. He was used to working alongside people whose abilities he knew, to being able to tell when a problem fell under Steve's area of expertise, or Tony's, or… or Natasha's. How could they work out how to take down Thanos when neither of them fully knew what the other could do?

"Theoretically, yes. But if his skin is as thick as it looks, it might not work." Padma looked around at the witches and wizards nearby, most of whom were the same ones who had landed with her — for want of a better word. "Everyone, form a circle around him. Get ready to cast the Impediment Jinx on my signal — and anything else you can think of that will slow him down without risking hurting our guy."

They all started to move into position, giving Thanos and Steve a wide berth. Clearly, no one fancied the idea of getting any closer than they had to. As they got into position, Thanos knocked Cap backwards, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Do it now," Bruce said, taking a step forward before stopping when he realised he'd only get in the way. "I'll let you get the first lot of spells off, then I'll rush in as well. The more firepower, the better."

She nodded, then raised her wand above her head. As one, the group shouted something, the exact word getting lost in the cacophony of voices.

Thanos froze.

Just as he started moving again, they did it again.

And again.

And again.

Thanos was like a glitch, stopping and starting without control, always caught on the same motion, never seeming to get much further.

Steve rose to his feet, an awed expression on his face. As soon as he was standing again, he rushed in, fist flying before he even reached his target.

Bruce joined him. In such close quarters, his blasters would do more harm than good, so he stuck to melee. It felt odd to hit someone at all, let alone an opponent who couldn't fight back, but he pushed his inhibitions aside. Thanos was willing to wipe out billions of innocent life forms who didn't even know they were in danger; this wasn't the time for moral qualms.

The witches and wizards kept shouting, and Thanos kept glitching.

After a moment, Thor landed beside him, the ground rumbling under the force of his landing. Holding the hammer — or was it an axe? — in one hand, he stepped forward. "Stay back. He's mine."

Bruce and Steve both took a step backwards, although they stayed close enough to start attacking again at the first sign of trouble. The witches and wizards kept casting their spell, stopping only as long as it took to take a breath.

Thor leant forward to whisper something so quietly that Bruce couldn't discern the words. All he could make out was the sheer venom and rage in his voice.

Then, the Asgardian moved back. With a giant leap and a mighty swing, he cut off the Mad Titan's left arm at the shoulder. The gauntlet fell to the ground, clattering uselessly against the dirt.

The next hit was directed at the heart.

And the next was the head.

Within seconds, it was over.

-x-

Once Thanos was dead, it was only a matter of time until they'd dealt with the rest of the aliens as well. Afterwards, staring out across the bodies that littered the field — human and alien alike — all Bruce could feel was sadness.

Ever since he was a little boy, he'd imagined what life was like on other planets. In a universe so vast, the existence of aliens had seemed almost inevitable, as had the likelihood of one coming to Earth eventually. It was what had initially spurred his interest in science, even if his focus had quickly shifted to biochemistry instead. Back then, he'd alternated between dreaming about what it would be like to meet an alien race to fearing it, knowing how ill-equipped Earth would be to defend themselves.

Now, it seemed, Earth was on the metaphorical map. The threats kept coming, growing progressively worse, and he couldn't see an endpoint to it. They'd tried building Ultron and it had just made things worse. What was next? How many more foes hellbent on death and destruction could they thwart before one of them succeeded? Were they fighting a losing battle?

Steve walked up beside him and clapped him on the back. How typical of him. Exhaustion was written across his face, and he was tottering unsteadily on his feet, but he had not stopped once since that initial charge. "A few of us are going to take the gauntlet up to Shuri's lab to see if she can get the gems out. Are you coming?"

"Yeah," Bruce said, opening the suit's visor as they started walking away from the battlefield. They could deal with what came next later. For now, they just had to keep putting one step in front of the other, trusting their instincts to guide them. "We're going to have to work out where to store them. With Asgard gone, we can't just put them back where Thanos found them."

"I know." Steve sighed. "Vision still has the Mind Stone, and the Time Stone can go back to Doctor Strange, assuming he's still… well, _assuming_. But the others... Vision's asking Rocket for suggestions now, but we're hoping Thor has somewhere in mind."

They passed a mixed group of Wakandans, witches, and wizards, including Okoye and Padma. Okoye seemed to be organising a search for survivors. "The witches and wizards might be able to take one."

"That's true. We'll have to look into what their security's like."

"Where _is_ Thor?" Bruce asked suddenly, realising that he hadn't seen the Asgardian since shortly after Thanos' defeat.

"He's gone to Titan to look for Tony and the others."

Bruce nodded, trying not to dwell on the words 'look for'. They were vague — uncertain. There was no guarantee that Thor would find them, or that they would be alive when he did. "So… witches and wizards."

Steve laughed faintly. "It wasn't what I was expecting when I woke up this morning, that's for sure. But I suppose nothing should be unexpected anymore."

"You can say that again."

* * *

A/N: Re-uploaded on 3 April. Thank you so much to Alphinss for betaing!


	4. As the Dust Settles

Most of the Aurors went home immediately after the battle, eager to see their families and friends and to pass on the news that the crisis was averted. The only ones who stayed were those who were injured or were directly involved in their care. Wizarding travel might be convenient, but it didn't mix well with injuries.

Among the number who remained were Harry and Padma. Harry's legs had been mangled in the fight when he jumped in front of a Spanish Auror who was about to get mauled, and while the damage was reversible, it wasn't safe to move him yet. A Scandinavian wizard named Sverre had stayed behind to heal the injured, and Padma was there — despite the man's protests — to ensure Harry's safety. Even all these years after the war, there was always the chance of a Death Eater sympathiser trying to get revenge, especially when he was in such a weakened state.

The Avengers were still there, too, using the time to regroup and, from what Padma could tell, work through unresolved tension. It was like walking through a minefield blindfolded; the oddest of comments could cause a silent standoff to flare up, and Padma and Harry had no way of knowing who it would be between or why it would occur.

Despite that, she found herself liking this odd, mismatched group of people. They were charismatic to a fault, and they helped her keep her mind off Sea — off things she wasn't ready to think about.

Besides, the range and scope of technology they had at their fingertips was fascinating, some of it even surpassing the bounds of what was conceivable with magic. While Harry healed, she tried to learn as much as she could, eager to make the most of this opportunity. It might be years before a chance like this came her way again.

What implications would this have for the study of magic and development of new spells? The Muggles had created a suit that could assemble itself out of nowhere and even reform itself into new shapes as the wearer commanded. Surely, they could replicate something like that with magic — or even build on it. Weave invisibility magic through it, make it resistant to spells, possibly even make a person immune to the Killing Curse since the enemy would never get a direct hit in…

It could revolutionise the way the Auror Department operated and, indeed, the way they approached the field of magic.

Faced with the endless possibilities, Padma knew that she would never be happy just being an Auror. She didn't want to read the answers in a textbook; she wanted to find them, understand them, test them herself. Most people viewed research as isolated and detached, but to her, it was the most hands-on thing she could imagine.

The idea of going back to the Department of Mysteries didn't thrill her. Working such long hours as that, it was important to be able to get along with colleagues, but the confidentiality clauses were so strict that Unspeakables usually kept to themselves.

But maybe there was another option. Perhaps she could go off on her own somehow. It would be difficult, but now that the Statute of Secrecy had fallen, the potential audience for her findings had opened up. Before she left, she would have to ask Bruce how people went about conducting research in the Muggle world.

She hadn't felt this excited about anything since long before she left the Department of Mysteries.

That night, she and Harry slept in one of the guest rooms in the palace. They'd been offered separate rooms, but she'd wanted to keep an eye on him, so they'd opted to share, Transfiguring the desk into a second bed for convenience.

For hours, they spoke about Seamus and the other people they'd lost, alternating between laughing and fighting back tears until it was too painful. Then, they fell quiet.

Eventually, bone-tired, she drifted off to sleep.

-x-

Padma slept in late the next day, her body making up for lost time. When she woke, it was to find Harry sitting up on his bed, talking to Ginny through a handheld mirror. Or, at least, she assumed he was talking — he must have cast a privacy charm so he didn't wake her.

"Good morning," she muttered, running a hand through her hair to pull it away from her face. "It _is_ still morning, right?"

Harry looked up at her with a bright smile before saying something to the mirror and then dropping the privacy charm. "Barely. But then I haven't been awake long, either. I would probably still be asleep if the pain potion hadn't worn off."

"Right," she said, her brain kicking into action. "Let's go find Sverre."

Harry shook his head. "I've had worse. Breakfast first."

They got ready and slowly made their way downstairs, Harry relying heavily on the crutches Sverre had Transfigured for him. He was still unsteady on his feet, but the potions and salves the Healer had given him were working wonders in repairing the damage.

"I should be alright to head back today," Harry said, wincing with each movement. "Ginny said everyone's still worried about us."

"Rowan said he'd let our families know we're alright," Padma pointed out. From what Sverre had said, it might take a few days for Harry to be up to Side-Along Apparition. The potions he was on didn't mix well with long-distance travel; the resulting nausea would hinder his healing.

Harry smiled dryly. "Hearing it isn't quite the same thing as seeing it, as Ginny made clear to me this morning. I don't think the kids will believe I'm fine until they see it with their own eyes."

Padma had to give him that. Her parents and sister were probably anxious to see her as well. Still, they had to stay for as long as they had to stay. Rushing to get home early would only cause more problems in the long run.

When they reached the dining room, they found food laid out across the tables — whether for stragglers from breakfast or early-comers for lunch, she wasn't sure. There were only a few people there, but fortunately, Bruce and Sverre were both among them. Making their way over, Padma settled in across from Bruce, with Harry taking the end seat so he could rest his crutches on the floor beside him.

It was still odd seeing Bruce without the suit on. While she had, intellectually, known that there was a human inside, she'd come to associate him with the red and gold metal. Hearing his voice come out of a human body — and an attractive one, at that — would take some getting used to.

Not, of course, that she was going to have much time to do it.

"Where's home for you?" she asked as she filled her plate with a fonio dish that she didn't recognise. Based on his accent, it was obviously somewhere in America.

"New York," he said hesitantly. "I think. I haven't been there for a while, though, so I'm not sure what I'll find when I get back."

"Oh?" She paused, her fork halfway to her mouth. "Where have you been?"

Bruce laughed. "Another planet. Well, sort of. It's kind of a long story."

Padma raised her eyebrows. She'd been in Wakanda for less than twenty-four hours, and already, she wasn't sure what her life would look like when she got home. How much more pronounced would that feeling be after going to a different _planet_? "That sounds fascinating; I'd love to hear about it sometime."

"Maybe later," Bruce said. "It's still a bit… new."

Nodding, she asked, "So what's New York like?"

Bruce smiled, a grateful expression on his face. "Busy. Think about everything you've ever heard about it; somehow, it manages to be both better and worse at the same time. It even makes Kolkata look small."

"You've been to India?" She leaned forward in her seat, resting her forearms on the table. "My parents came from Ahmedabad. I go back to visit my grandparents every few years, but I've never been that far east."

His eyes brightened. "I lived there for a few years while I — "

Suddenly, the doors swung open, and footsteps rushed into the room. One hand dropping to her wand, Padma looked up, half-rising from her seat.

But it was not some new threat, as her instincts had suspected. Instead, it was Tony, whom she had met briefly the night before and was still trying to wrap her head around.

"The announcement's live," he said as he strode over to them, pulling up an extra chair so he could sit next to Bruce. With some sort of hand gesture that looked an awful lot like simplistic wand movements, he conjured a large, pale blue screen seemingly out of nowhere. "It's airing live worldwide."

Padma reached out, and her hand went straight through the screen. It wasn't like with ghosts, who were intangible but left behind a sort of chill; it was as if nothing was there at all.

She had _so many questions_.

"What announcement?" Bruce asked, voicing what was perhaps the most pressing one.

Tony jerked his head towards Padma and Harry. "Their leader's."

Padma frowned for a moment, confused, before realising that he must be speaking about Babajide. The position of Supreme Mugwump didn't necessarily translate to being the leader of the wizarding world, but she could see why he had made that assumption. Still, it was neither the time nor place to explain the intricacies of the wizarding government.

Babajide appeared on the screen, standing at a podium and garbed in Muggle clothes. In Swahili, he slowly began to explain the key points of wizarding history: what magic was, why they had closed themselves off from society, how they had lived in tandem with the Muggle world for centuries, why they were breaking their silence now, and that they only wanted peace. English and IsiXhosa translations ran across the bottom of the screen.

For the most part, Padma tuned out what he was saying; it was nothing she hadn't learnt in school or in the department's reintegration preparations. Instead, she focused on the reactions of those around her. Bruce was leaning forward, his gaze intent, while Tony was standing up with his arms crossed and an unfathomable expression on his face. Nearby, Masimbo, a Wakandan warrior she'd fought alongside after Thanos fell, appeared only mildly surprised.

That was interesting. There were a number of countries where the Statute of Secrecy had been weaker, with Muggle citizens knowing about the existence of magic but not how widespread it was. If Masimbo's expression was anything to go by, either he knew someone magical or Wakanda was one such country.

Next to her, Harry was doing the same as she was, his shoulders tense. No wonder; from what she'd heard about his childhood, he hadn't had the best experiences with Muggles who knew about magic.

When their eyes met, he nodded in acknowledgement.

"So," Tony said, closing the screen once Babajide finished his speech and the image cut to local news presenters dissecting it, "two questions. Well, a thousand questions, but two for now. No, three for now."

Padma raised her eyebrows at Harry, who shrugged. Legally, they were now allowed to disclose anything that the average witch or wizard would know. But based on the sort of team the Avengers were, she suspected that at least a few hundred of Tony's questions would delve into areas that didn't fall under that category.

And that was a conservative estimate.

"Alright," Harry said cautiously. "We'll try our best to answer."

Tony nodded and held up his index finger. "First question. I was on Titan for most of the battle, so I didn't see any of the fight down here. It's all well and good for him to stand there and do magic on TV, but with the current state of technology today, anything can be doctored. After everything I've seen, I'm inclined to believe him… but I still want to see it in person. Can you give us a practical demonstration?"

Sighing, Harry pulled out his wand. With a lazy flick of his wand, he levitated the chair Bruce was sitting on, lifting it until it was hovering just above the height of the table. The man's arms shot out as if to steady himself before retracting slowly as the chair stopped moving.

Eyes wide, Tony tapped his chest twice, and red and gold armour spread across his body like watercolour on a canvas. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., scan the chair and the wand for any electromagnetic emissions or other signs of interference. Still got control of the other guy, Banner?"

"He isn't happy, but he isn't looking to come out to play, either," Bruce said, his expression pinched. "Still, a little warning would be nice next time."

Harry shrugged. "Sorry. I wanted to do it on something you knew we couldn't have tampered with."

For the next few minutes, Tony examined the chair as he and Bruce discussed different possibilities with words Padma couldn't even begin to understand. She supposed it was how Ravenclaws must have sounded to the other Houses back at school, suddenly feeling more empathy for all the times her sister had asked her to stop droning on about something.

Then, with a nod, Tony stepped back. "Fine. I suppose magic is as good an explanation as any for now. You can let him down."

"Slowly," Bruce added.

Harry carefully lowered the chair to the ground.

"Next question?" Padma asked.

"That Supreme Mugwump guy didn't say it outright, but reading between the lines, not everybody is on board with the decision to go public."

"You noticed that too?" Bruce asked. "He was trying to talk around it, but it just made it more obvious."

Tony nodded. "I've had too much experience with businesspeople trying to pull the wool over my eyes to fall for that. Anyway, on a scale from 'governess in Germany' to 'the spinning top doesn't fall', how worried about that should I be?"

" _What_?" Padma blurted out, glancing over at Harry, who looked as confused as she felt. The words all made sense individually, but what on Earth did German governesses and well-crafted spinning tops have to do with anything?

"Really?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "What about 'found the ruby slippers' to 'a night at the Bates Motel'?"

Padma and Harry both shook their heads.

"You're worse than Cap," Tony said. "Alright. If anything's going to convince me that you're from a closed-off community that has kept itself secret for centuries, despite the development of surveillance technology and mobile phones, it's that you don't recognise _The Wizard of Oz_. From one to a hundred, then."

"About thirty?" Harry guessed, looking to Padma for confirmation.

"I'd say twenty," she said. "The government is serious about reintegrating peacefully, so as long as you don't threaten us, outright war is off the table. But there's a history of people Muggle baiting — using magic to tease, confuse, and even sometimes hurt non-magical folk — and there's a good chance that will flare up, especially for the first few months. But most people have become more open to Muggle culture after the war, so if it's handled correctly — and if they see how much firepower you have — I doubt it will last long."

"How bad does this Muggle baiting usually get?" Bruce asked.

"People have been hospitalised," Harry admitted. "But while it's illegal, the penalty is quite lax because, traditionally, the government has valued magical lives over non-magical ones. That's going to have to change now."

"A lot of things will." Padma took another bite of her meal. So many of their laws had been built on two fundamental premises: that witches and wizards were more valuable than Muggles and magical creatures, and that secrecy was of the utmost importance. There had been progress since the war, but not enough. Now that those premises had been overturned, there was going to have to be a massive legislative review.

"That's fascinating," Tony said, "but before we go down that rabbit hole, one more question: how do we go about getting a witch or wizard on our team?"

* * *

A/N: Re-uploaded on 3 April. Thank you so much to Alphinss for betaing!


	5. The Offer

"Ah… Tony?" Bruce asked. "I know I've been gone for a while, but from what Rhodey told me, there isn't much of a team left to join."

Tony waved his hand dismissively, but Bruce knew him well enough to see the ache in his eyes; the team's breakup meant more to him than he cared to let on. "We'll get back together. A comeback — and it'll be like Deep Purple instead of KISS."

Quietly, Bruce asked, "What about the Accords?"

"What is this, Twenty Questions?" Tony scoffed. "When we get to that, we'll work it out as a team. Together."

The 'like we should've done the first time' went unspoken.

Deciding to cut him some slack — Bruce had more than enough experience with guilt and regret — he turned to Padma and Harry. "You know, Tony has a point. If our worlds are colliding, we're going to have to deal with wizarding threats as well, so we have to know what your side can do. The best way to do that would be for one of your people to become an Avenger, or at least a consultant like Tony."

"We can't," said the wizard who had stayed to heal the wounded, chiming in from further down the table. "Magic and, er, 'technology' don't mix. Your devices tend to stop working."

Tony narrowed his eyes. "Then how do you expect to reintegrate? Or do you just see our technology as a casualty in all of this?"

"How many people will be put out of work?" Bruce asked, horrified. "How many more will die because their pacemaker malfunctions?"

"I didn't think about that," Harry admitted, running a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure the ICW did, either, although I wouldn't put it past them to decide it was an acceptable loss."

But Padma shook her head. "That may not be true, Sverre."

Sverre turned to her, an incredulous expression on his face. "What are you talking about? Everyone knows that magic breaks technology. The Muggle-borns at Beauxbatons were always complaining about having to leave things at home." Turning back to Tony and Bruce, he asked, "Is it really that widespread? I thought it was only used for entertainment."

"And once upon a time," Padma said before either of them could answer, "'everyone knew' that you couldn't Apparate the length of the United Kingdom because the distance was too long. They're mixing now, aren't they? Harry just levitated Bruce's chair, and it didn't cause any problems with the Muggle elek — elektrik — "

"Electricity?" Bruce supplied, sharing a glance with Tony. The more he heard, the more curious he became. If they didn't use electricity, what _did_ they use? Candles? Some form of solar or geothermal energy? Something else entirely?

"Yeah, that." Padma shot him a grateful smile that transformed her face from pretty to beautiful. For a moment, he couldn't look away, even though he knew it was entirely too soon and she knew entirely too little about him. "And during the fight yesterday, we were casting spells left, right, and centre, yet even though there were a lot of people wearing suits, none of them malfunctioned. At least as far as I know."

She looked over at Bruce, her expression inquiring.

"That's true," he replied, focusing on the problem at hand. "Even when you were all casting those stasis spells at Thanos, my suit was fully operational. A little slower than before, perhaps; at the time, I thought it was because I was tired, but it could have been the exposure to magic. Still, it was otherwise fine."

Sverre let out a noise of frustration. "Well, _yes,_ of course. The effect isn't immediate; they can co-exist for a while, but the technology deteriorates over time. The more magic it's exposed to, and the longer they're in contact, the worse it will be."

"Right now, that's the case," Padma said. "But I don't think it _has_ to be. When I was an Unspeakable — "

"An Unspeakable?" Tony asked.

"A magical researcher. Because of the nature of their work, there are restrictions on what they can and can't disclose to others," Harry explained.

Padma nodded. "Hence the name. Anyway, my speciality was researching the nature of magic. I can't talk about the details, but one of my areas of interest was whether it was possible to modify Muggle technology to make it compatible with magic.

"It was your little jaunt with Arthur Weasley's car that made me think of it, Harry. The Burrow is one of the most magically dense households in existence; it literally wouldn't stay together without magic. But that car was stored there for years, and it still worked. And so many kids came to school with Muggle watches and alarm clocks, and they usually lasted the year. Why is it that some forms of technology are affected while others aren't?"

"What do you think?" Bruce asked, fascinated. Did it have something to do with the type of car or watch it was?

He made a mental note to ask about this house held together by magic later.

"I don't know. I have some hypotheses, but my request to pursue them was denied."

"Why?" Tony asked, frowning. "By understanding the effects and limits of magic, you would better understand magic itself. Unless… Ah. Politics."

She cleared her throat. "I'm afraid the reason is confidential since it relates directly to the goings-on of the department."

Bruce's stomach sank. "It's to keep the Muggle and wizarding worlds separate, isn't it? As long as magic is seen as incompatible with Muggle culture and technology, it makes sense to keep the two worlds apart. That way, Muggle-borns have to choose between the two, which would help to keep security tight. What kid wouldn't choose magic?"

"As soon as you find a way for people to take technology to school with them," Tony chimed in, "they can stay in touch with the Muggle world — their families, friends, culture — even while they're away at school."

"And then their friends — what do you call witches and wizards who are born to other witches and wizards?"

Padma looked sheepish. "Purebloods."

Bruce stared at her. Even knowing as little as he did about wizarding culture, he knew enough about the world to know that that word spoke of centuries of prejudice and discrimination. "That's disgusting."

"Trust me; we know," Harry said. "We fought a war over it."

"And that makes two thousand," Tony muttered under his breath. "Questions," he added as Harry shot him a confused look.

"Well," Bruce said, continuing before Tony could give into their apparently mutual urge to ask about this war, "then their friends who are purebloods learn more about it, too, and they start to think that maybe Muggles aren't so bad after all. If you want people to fear something, you make sure they don't understand it." Bruce raised his eyebrows. "I know you can't confirm or deny any of that, but are we close?"

Padma held his gaze pointedly for several long moments. She wasn't confirming it, but she wasn't denying it, either. That was probably for the best; he and Tony would have covered for her, and he suspected that Harry would too, but he wasn't sure about Sverre. From the dirty expression on his face, he didn't like having been corrected.

Subtly, Bruce nodded, trusting that she would realise that the message had been received.

"Alright, then," Tony said, clapping his hands. Padma flinched, and their gazes broke. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Have you ever thought about moving to America?"

Bruce groaned. "Tony, you can't just go around — "

"You'll find that I can and I am," he replied, his voice chipper. "Padma, why don't you join the team? We'll need to check with the others, of course — in keeping with the new democracy thing we're trying out — but I can't see why they'd say no."

"You hardly know me," she pointed out. "For all you know, I'm failing at my job."

"Are you?"

"No," Harry said. "She's one of my star employees."

"Aren't you an American group?" Sverre asked.

Tony narrowed his eyes. "Not exclusively; Natasha and Wanda aren't. Besides, we could do with more international representation. And since Wanda's already a witch, you'd have someone to bond with."

Bruce paused. He hadn't intended to get involved; whatever decision she made, he wanted it to be hers alone, not because she was coerced or bribed — not like he had been. But he didn't like the idea of Sverre influencing her decision, either. "Tony has a point. We rely heavily on technology, so we have to get it to coexist with magic as soon as possible. You're the one who has already spent time developing hypotheses. If you're interested…"

"I am," she said quickly. "I left the Department of Mysteries because it felt stifling, but I'm missing the mental stimulation; the Auror Department can get really monotonous sometimes. So if the rest of the team is alright with me joining, I would love to."

Then, seeming to realise what she'd said, she looked over at Harry guiltily.

"It's alright." Harry looked back down at his food, which had probably gone cold in the time they'd been talking. He cast a spell over it, and steam started rising from it once more. "I've known for a while now that it's only a matter of time before you leave; the only question was where you'd go. If you want to go, you should."

"I really appreciate that."

"Great!" Tony pulled his phone from his pocket. "I'll get my assistant to organise the paperwork. It'll mean you're close to Banner, too, which is a plus."

" _Tony_." The actual implication didn't bother Bruce. He did like her, and he could see himself developing feelings for her one day. But he didn't want Tony to give her false expectations about something that he might not be able to offer her for years, if ever.

But Padma didn't falter. "That's true," she said, surprising him.

"Excellent." Tony's watch buzzed, and he glanced down at his phone. "It's my fiancée. I need to take this, but we can talk through what things would look like after you've had a chance to eat."

Bruce blinked. That was something he'd never thought he'd hear; somehow, Rhodey hadn't thought to bring it up. " _Fiancée?_ "

Already walking away, phone halfway to his ear, Tony called over his shoulder: "Yeah, Pepper and I are back together. I proposed a few months ago. Hi, honey."

"'Back together'? You and Pepper broke up?" Bruce asked, floored.

He suspected he'd be well-acquainted with that feeling by the time he was caught up with everything that had occurred since he'd been gone.

-x-

"Can we go for a walk?" Bruce asked when he and Padma had both finished eating. Sverre had checked over Harry, concluding that he was healing well and would be fine to travel in a day or two. Apparently, he excelled at what he did, even if his personality was sometimes abrasive.

"Sure." Setting aside her napkin, she stood. "I'll catch up with you later, Harry."

They left the dining area, winding their way through the halls of the palace and out into a lush garden that Bruce had stumbled across while trying to navigate the place that morning. A few of the palace's inhabitants were weaving through the flowerbeds, but they were far enough away that he wasn't worried about being overheard.

"You really meant it when you said 'walk', didn't you?" Padma asked wryly.

He let out a huff of amusement. "I wanted to get away from everybody first."

"First?"

For a moment, they were both quiet as Bruce gathered his thoughts. Then, haltingly, he started to talk. "Padma, I don't mean to presume, but what Tony said earlier…"

"About being close to you?" She rolled her eyes. "He's not exactly subtle, is he?"

"Believe it or not, he is when he wants to be... he just never wants to be." Bruce sighed and led the way down one of the many intertwining paths. As tempting as it was to take the tangent and run with it, he wasn't one to take the coward's way out. "Padma, for what it's worth, I like you. I would love to work with you, and if anything else came of it, I would be open to that too."

"But?"

"But," Bruce said, "I just came out of a relationship with a teammate that didn't end well. She... betrayed me, and I haven't had the chance to even start working through it. Until I come to terms with it, I can't think about being with someone else."

"That teammate would be Natasha. Well, that explains some of the tension." Meeting his gaze, she added, "Bruce, I understand."

"Do you? I don't." Bruce hesitated, torn. Then, exasperated, he shook his head. "You're going to find out about it eventually either way. Have you heard of the Hulk?"

"I read about him in the briefing."

"Nothing positive, I'm sure." Bruce couldn't decide whether it was good or bad that she was already aware of the Hulk. On one hand, he wouldn't have to cover the basics. On the other, he knew what the public had, until recently, thought of the other guy. And for good reason. "Well, I'm him. Or, rather, he comes out whenever I lose control of my emotions or he thinks I'm in danger. There are times when that's useful, but most of the time, it just passes that danger onto everybody around me."

"Oh." Padma raised her eyebrows. "That's how you were only 'sort of' on another planet? He was in control?"

Bruce narrowed his eyes. How was she taking this so casually? Was this, somehow, another elaborate scheme to weaponise the Hulk? "You're taking this surprisingly well."

Instead of answering directly, she replied with a question: "Are you a danger to me?"

"No," he replied automatically, hurt by the insinuation.

Padma shrugged. "One of the best professors I ever had was a werewolf. Every full moon, he turned into a monster. But the rest of the time, he was a kind man with a knack for making lessons interesting. I don't know the Hulk; you know more about who, and what, he is than Ministry officials who only know him through newspaper clippings. But your friends clearly think _you're_ a good person."

"It's not that simple," Bruce said, although he was touched by the sentiment. "But thank you."

"Thank _you_ for telling me."

"You're on the verge of making a big decision," he said. He hesitated, not sure how to make his point without coming across as presumptuous. "I know you wouldn't base it on me alone, but I wanted to make sure you had an accurate understanding of… all of the factors first."

"I appreciate it, but as I said earlier, I've been wanting to make some changes to my life for a while now." Padma shrugged. "You're a factor in my thinking, but even if you weren't, I would still be interested in hearing more about the job."

They stopped by a cluster of pale orange daisies. Reaching over, Padma smelled one. "Before Tony came in, you were saying something about your time in India."

Grateful for the change in topic, Bruce smiled.

* * *

A/N: Re-uploaded on 4 April.


	6. Growing Pains

A/N: My apologies for how long this took. I was hoping to get it out earlier but couldn't get the flow right. I've gone through and edited and re-uploaded the previous chapters, although there weren't any changes to the content; it was just fixing up typos and grammar issues.

* * *

 **New York State, June 2020**

A blast of energy hit Padma's chest, ramming her backwards into the brick wall. Hot pain shot through her back, and she let out a low groan as she dropped to the ground. An answering roar sounded as the Hulk charged forward, rushing at the witch who had shot her.

Pressing her wand to her back, Padma cast a quick healing charm, numbing the ache. It wasn't much, but it would suffice until they returned to the Quinjet and she was able to take a better look at it.

She staggered to her feet. Her mind groggy from weariness, she took a moment to collect herself before running back into the fray, firing off spells at one of the remaining insurgents.

"Ravenclaw, I'm going in," Peter said, his voice coming in loud through her earpiece.

"Roger that, Spiderman," she muttered, immediately switching to shielding spells.

The next instant, Peter swooped down from a nearby rooftop, yanking the wand from her opponent's hand with a sharp, well-practiced twist. Once the webslinger was clear, Padma took advantage of the wizard's surprise to step forward and shout, _"Stupefy!"_

The wizard fell.

Gripping her wand tightly, Padma turned, scanning the battlefield for her next opponent. It took her fight-addled brain a few moments to realise that everyone else had already finished fighting. As she blinked blearily, Steve and Vision were starting to round up the unconscious witches and wizards, while Wanda was repairing the damage to the surrounding buildings.

"Is it just me, or are they getting tougher?" Sam asked as he stumbled up beside her.

"It's not just you."

After the wizarding world went public, several small rebel groups had emerged, violently protesting the decision. Their number included wizards and Muggles alike, both sides citing safety concerns and using the actions of the other as justification for their hatred.

Padma didn't understand what they were trying to achieve. The necessity of the decision aside, the bell that had sounded the death knell for the Statute of Secrecy was the kind that could never be un-rung. The Muggle world had been fooled into believing that all witches and wizards had died once; it wouldn't fall for that ploy again.

All the insurgents were doing was bringing about the conflict they claimed to be trying to avoid.

Fortunately, the protests were becoming rarer as they apprehended those involved; unfortunately, the remaining insurgents were becoming more aggressive and desperate in their attempts.

"Do you have any Pepper-Up left?" she asked. They'd all taken some in with them, but she'd given hers to an injured bystander after Apparating them outside of the city limits.

He pulled a vial from his pocket — or TARDIS, as the team had taken to calling the pockets she'd cast Undetectable Extension Charms on — and offered it to her.

"Thanks." She took it and downed it in one gulp. She grimaced as a shiver ran through hers, but she instantly felt energy surge within her.

When she met Sam's gaze again, he was shaking his head. "Witches and wizards have magic at their disposal, yet your medicine _still_ tastes like garbage. If anything, it's worse than ours."

Padma raised an eyebrow. "That's only because you have to take it in liquid form. Bruce has been talking about making them into tablets, but he's still working on the logistics."

Off to her right, Natasha was walking through the rubble, even as the pieces started to glow red before rising around her and fitting themselves back together again. "Tony? The threat's been neutralised… No, we're all fine." She frowned, then asked, "Are you still at the compound?"

There was a familiar huff of laughter from behind Padma. "I can't imagine him being anywhere else."

Turning, Padma found Bruce standing a few metres away, now back in human form and wearing the spare clothes they'd left in the Quinjet.

"Eventually, he's going to have to stop going to the compound whenever we go on a mission," she pointed out.

"This is Tony we're talking about," Sam said wryly.

Bruce tilted his head. "I'm not sure he knows the meaning of the words 'have to'."

"That's true." Padma did think Tony would step back further when the rest of his original teammates joined him in semi-retirement, but she held her tongue. There was a chance they would only stop fighting when they died, so the team didn't talk about _after_ much.

"Where's Felicia?" Sam asked suddenly, surveying the battlefield. His gaze sharpened, and Padma followed it to see the woman in question sitting alone, staring at the ground. "I'll go check on her. Fighting wizards is as weird as all get-out the first time; it would only make it harder to know everyone else is already used to it."

Shooting them a quick grin, he said, "Don't miss me too much," and left.

"I didn't even think about that," Padma admitted.

Felicia had had a short but successful career in crime before undergoing a change of heart and joining the Avengers; on top of that, she'd had training before joining them in the field. But Padma should have known there was a difference between seeing a teammate cast magic in controlled environments and dodging spells as they flew every which way in a battle.

"None of us did, apart from Sam." Bruce put a warm hand on Padma's arm before glancing over at Natasha, who was still talking to Tony. "Can we talk somewhere private?"

Her curiosity spiked. Over the past two years, Bruce and Natasha had reached the point that they were no longer awkward around one another, but they never discussed anything deep. For him to want privacy from the rest of the team, it had to be something to do with the Hulk. "Of course."

They walked until they were far enough away that nobody could hear them before sitting down on a recently re-formed bench.

"The therapy is having an effect," Bruce said. "This time, when the other guy came out, he didn't force me out. He had control, but I was conscious, too, and he could hear me."

She stared at him, her eyes wide. When she'd recommended that he visit a psychologist, she'd hoped that the Hulk's personality would merge back into Bruce's, but she hadn't been expecting this much progress, let alone this quickly. "That's brilliant! It must have been a relief to see everything as it happened rather than having to wonder about it when you came to."

There was a sense of wonder in his voice when he replied, "It really is. He _listened_ to me — sometimes, at least — and feeling his emotions… He was angry, but it was a defensive anger, not an aggressive one. He just wanted to be safe."

"Isn't survival the most basic of human instincts?" Padma asked.

When Bruce didn't reply, looking too lost in his thoughts for words, she rested a hand on his knee. "He's not a monster."

"Maybe he isn't," Bruce said finally.

"Okay, we're done here." Steve's voice rang out across the clearing. "Everybody ready to clear out?"

-x-

The flight back to the Avengers compound was quick. Before long, the Quinjet had touched down, and the group was stepping off the aircraft and making its way through the technomagical security system Tony had engineered.

Mere steps inside, they were ambushed by the man himself, who was holding his infant daughter in his arms as she tugged at his ear.

"Dada."

"Yes, that's my ear," he said indulgently, patting her back. "It looks funny, doesn't it? Now, why don't you go and tug on Uncle Bruce's ear instead?"

He kissed the one-year-old's head before handing her to Bruce, who raised an eyebrow at him.

Tony shrugged. "Pepper said I can't take Eloise into the lab. I've been waiting all morning for someone to get back to babysit."

He played the role of beleaguered genius well, but it was belied by his bright eyes and the warm smile he gave the girl as she settled into Bruce's arms. After all, the moment he'd laid eyes on her, he had decided to step back from being Iron Man, determined that she wouldn't grow up with an absentee father like he had.

"Besides," he added with a sly wink at Padma, "the practice will be good for you." Already starting to walk backwards out of the room, he turned to the youngest Avenger. "Peter, want to join me?"

The pair left, Peter shooting an apologetic look at Bruce and Padma before disappearing from sight.

"Does Tony know something we don't?" Steve asked, glancing down at Padma's stomach. "I thought you didn't want kids."

"We don't," Padma said.

"Probably," Bruce said at the same time. "But not about this. He's been at it for weeks now. Tony didn't want kids at first, and he loves being a father, so he's convinced we'll change our minds too."

Felicity frowned. Ever since she'd talked with Sam, she'd looked more composed, but she was still a little pale. "He shouldn't leave his daughter with you without checking first."

"It's fine. He knows I like spending time with her… he's just being obnoxious about it."

"I'll say." Padma shook her head in fond exasperation and reached out to put her index finger into Eloise's tiny hand, which closed around her. "Hopefully, you'll take after your mum. Your dad's great, but I don't think the world can handle another Tony."

Eloise giggled, and Padma didn't know whether she should take the noise as a sign of agreement or a warning.

She didn't care.

Over the past two years, they'd made a few breakthroughs in their research. In addition to Tony's progress with fusing technology and magic, Bruce and Padma had made some strides in their quest to compare Muggle and wizard biology. For the most part, they were focusing on quantifying and finding explanations for differences that Padma already knew — such as the differences in sturdiness and life expectancy.

As time progressed, their hope was to make their research actionable, looking at the implications for Muggle health care and magical theory.

Of course, it had been a steep learning curve for her.

When Padma had arrived in New York, she'd confessed to not knowing much about science. At first, Bruce and Tony had insisted she was being modest, but it hadn't taken long for them to realise that, if anything, she was _understating_ it. After all, while she'd tried teaching herself the subject while working as an Unspeakable, it was such a broad field that she hadn't gotten far.

Fortunately, the other Avengers more than made up for her lack of knowledge in that area. During her time with them, Padma had picked up enough to be comfortable in the lab, even if she usually felt lost when the other Avengers really got into it.

Between that, moving overseas, starting a relationship with Bruce, and adjusting to the team's style of fighting, she'd had a lot on her plate.

But it was all worth it.

She'd found a job she loved and, more importantly, she'd found a second family.

"We should get to the debriefing," Vision said, starting in the direction of the conference complex.

Felicity followed the android. "As long as we get lunch afterwards."

Padma met Bruce's gaze as they made their way to the conference rooms, Eloise still tugging on Bruce's ear.

There had been a lot of changes over the past two years, and if the insurgents they'd faced that morning were anything to go by, the kickback was far from over. But here, seeing Muggles, enhanced Muggles, witches, and androids coming together with shared purposes — the pursuit of knowledge, protection of humankind, and advancement of technology — it was clear that the issues were mere growing pains.

She was eager to see what the world would become by the time they were done.


End file.
